The Mount of Olives

Let's turn to the Gospel of John, please, chapter 8. Actually, the last verse of chapter 7, And every man went on to his own house. Jesus went on to the Mount of Olives. Turn back to the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19, we'll read at verse 29. And it came to pass when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount called the Mount of Olives. He sent two of his disciples saying, Go ye into the village over against you, in the which that you're entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat.

Loose him and bring him hither. And if any man ask you, Why do you loose him? Thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him. And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them.

And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt? They said, The Lord hath need of him. And they brought him to Jesus. And so on.

Verse 37. And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Verse 41.

And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known even now, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the day shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee. And they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

Chapter 22. Verse 39. And he came out and went as he was want to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples also followed him.

And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. He was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done.

There appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood, falling down to the ground. And so we'll begin to the reading at verse 18.

And ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And when he had spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. While they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which has taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as you have seen him go into heaven.

Let's read about that like manner over in the book of Zechariah at the end of the Old Testament, chapter 14. Zechariah 14, verse number 4. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west. And there shall be a very great valley, and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal. Yea, ye shall flee like as you fled in the days of the earthquake, in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints, me included, by the way.

The Lord will bless the reading of his word. You'll notice the references to the Mount of Olives. Israel, going through the wilderness, were a testimony for the Lord, and there was given to them the tabernacle system.

You remember that within that tabernacle there was a golden lampstand, and that lampstand functioned by way of the burning of olive oil. That's an interesting thought when you remember that Israel were moving through a wilderness. So the question is this, where did they get the olive oil from? Olive trees don't grow in the wilderness, at least not the wilderness of Sinai.

Where did they get the olive oil from? And they hardly stayed long enough in one place even to raise a crop of olives, or certainly not to grow trees. Where did it come from? Well, I'll leave that question hanging while I make a suggestion. We would know from the story of Joseph that even in ancient times there were caravans of traders that moved through the desert.

And I would assume that with such a large company as the children of Israel moving through the wilderness that there would have been camp followers, there would have been merchants that came through to sell their wares and to trade with that large number of people, and I would assume that Israel, the people of Israel, were able to buy olive oil from the traders that would follow the camp of Israel. But be that as it may, the suggestion is just this, in order to have that olive oil, to burn the light of testimony in the tabernacle, Israel had to pay a price. They had to pay a price.

And so it is for us as well. You and I have to pay a price when it comes to testimony for our Lord Jesus Christ in this world. That much is true, isn't it? You'll allow the application.

There is a place in the land of Israel where olives grow even to this day, and the name of the place would give us a pretty good hint, seeing it's called the Mount of Olives. Now we have read a number of references to the Mount of Olives in relation to the lifetime of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I believe that linked with the life of Christ and the Mount of Olives, bringing those two things together, we can learn lessons about our testimony for God here in this world. So that's back of where we're coming from as we look at these scriptures together.

We see in John chapter 8 something of the solitude of the Lord Jesus. It says that every man went to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Every man else had gone, but there he is upon the Mount of Olives.

I take it alone, his solitude. The hymn writer said the mountaintop was oft his bed. Well, the Lord Jesus, we know that he said, foxes of holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.

Oftentimes he was found alone, even at night, alone with his God in solitude. And certainly his life was a life of testimony for God, wasn't it? There's a simple lesson there, and we've been hearing it already in the conference, how that it is absolutely essential for you and I if we're going to amount to anything for God in this world. If our testimony is going to shine in any kind of way, it's absolutely essential that we have times alone with God and with his Word, enjoying his presence, communing with him, mulling over the scriptures that we've read, meditating upon it, linking this with that and so on as you move through, and gleaning a little here and a little there, line upon line, precept upon precept, and learning a little bit of him as we go, and then seeking to live it out in our lives in order that our testimony might in some little way reflect the person and character of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now we come to Luke 19. This is the Sunday before the crucifixion. Jesus is drawn near now to the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, the opposite side of the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem, and he is on route to Jerusalem, and at this point he sends two of his disciples across the way to another village, and he told them that as they would enter into that village, you'll find a colt tied, and he said, loose him and bring him to me, and if the owners ask you what you're doing, you'll tell them the master hath need of them, and the interesting thing about that is that when the disciples went to the village, they found the colt tied exactly right there at the entrance of the village as they moved in just where the Lord said it would be, and just as he said it would happen, the owners ask them, what are you doing, loosing the colt? And they told him then exactly the words the Lord told them, the master hath need of him, and that seemed to settle the case, and they brought the colt to the Lord Jesus.

Everything had happened just as Jesus had predicted. It shows to us something of his omniscience, it shows to us something of his supreme authority, even as the Lord, that would know and would command that that should be so, just the way he said. It's one aspect of his character, but now notice this, the requisitioning of those animals for his own use was for a purpose in the fulfillment of the will of God.

He's going to come into Jerusalem, he is the Messiah, and he has the right to function as the Messiah, but does he come into the city of Jerusalem with a large army behind him, riding upon a white horse, a war stallion, as he rides triumphantly and thunders into the city? Is that how he's going to do it? No, that's not how he's going to do it, is it? In simplicity, he's going to fulfill what was written, even in the prophet Zechariah, as Isaiah and Zechariah had predicted. Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey, the colt and the foal of a donkey, and Jesus mounted upon that colt, he rides toward Jerusalem in simplicity, but fulfilling the will of his God. It was a tremendous historic moment, by the way.

If you've read the book by Sir Robert Anderson, The Prince, you'll remember that in that book he calculates, going through the calendar, he calculates the very day in which this event took place to coincide exactly with the last day of the 69 weeks of Daniel, chapter 9, and after that Messiah will be cut off. And the very day that he rides into Jerusalem, fulfill that prophecy from the book of Daniel, chapter 9 and verse 26. So it was a tremendous moment in history, a tremendous moment in history, a tremendous event, and the Lord Jesus is actually fulfilling Scripture and fulfilling the very will of his God, but notice how he does it in such simplicity.

I think that's instructive to our own hearts. You know, for you and I, in this the day still of his rejection, as linked with him, it's not a day for fanfare and trumpets. And when you and I are seeking to live for God and do the will of our God, we do well to do it in simplicity, just quietly doing his will.

As he instructs us, as he enables us to do the will of our Father which is in heaven. And in some little way then, we will reflect the character of our Lord Jesus Christ himself in testimony to him until he comes. Notice as well in that chapter, Luke 19, that Jesus drew near to the city and he utters a lamentation over that city, that has missed the opportunity of such a golden opportunity of receiving him as Messiah.

If they had have done that, it would have meant peace for them, but they knew not the time of their visitation. And looking down the road, the Lord Jesus could see that there was coming instead that tremendous event, the siege of Jerusalem A.D. 70, when General Titus and his Roman legions would lay siege to the city and compass it around on every side and would demolish the stones of the city and of the very temple. Though there was an order that the temple should not be destroyed, that was circumvented and the fulfillment of what the Lord says in Luke chapter 19 here took place.

Not one stone left upon another. Why? Because they knew not the time of their visitation. And as the Lord Jesus now comes and draws near to that city and sees the judgment of God that's going to come upon them because of their rejection of their Messiah, the very heart of Christ is moved within him and it says that beholding the city, he wept over it.

We see something of his sympathy for those that are perishing, for those that are lost, for those that are rejecting him. The question to my heart and to yours this afternoon is this, as we think of lost, those that are lost, we think of loved ones, we think of neighbors, think of those that are around us in their sins, turning a deaf ear to the gospel, careless of their soul's salvation, trampling on the Savior's blood, as that writer says, do we feel within our souls a sorrow? Are we touched with a sympathy for them? Is our hearts moved like the very heart of Christ? To remember, so far as this earth is concerned and those that are settled in it, there's judgment from God coming upon the earth dwellers. And it'll soon be here, his sympathy.

I notice as well his sorrow in Luke 22. The garden of Gethsemane is on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. The word Gethsemane itself means the place of the olive presses.

There were different ways in which the olives were pressed but there was the upper and the nether millstone. And there in that garden of Gethsemane we see the Savior anticipating what lies before him on the morrow when he, the Holy One of God, would come between the upper millstone of the wrath of a holy God against sin and the nether millstone of the tremendous load of our many sins. And as he anticipates that being in an agony, he prays more earnestly, his sweat became as it were great drops of blood extruded from his very body.

And the sorrow of the Savior is there seen in all its tremendous weight as he anticipates he himself coming in contact with sin being made the sin bearer at Calvary. Just a practical thought, are you and I touched with sorrow for sin? When we think of all that the Lord Jesus terminated by his death on the cross at Calvary, he finished with me before God. I am crucified with Christ, yet how often I self-intrudes in our service and in our lives for God.

Think of the world, we've been hearing about the world. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world is crucified unto me. And I crucified unto the world.

Does this world system cause you sorrow? Or is this world your oyster? Is this world and its ways and its systems and its entertainment and its sport, we've been hearing of that, is that all our great playground? Or has it been crucified to us? Do we look at the whole thing with sorrow and recognize that it's the devil's masterpiece to drown men in perdition? A little of the character of the Lord Jesus. He led them out as far as the Bethany in Acts chapter, well, the end of the Gospel of Luke, and then in Acts chapter 1, Lucas is dealing with it again. And the Lord Jesus said to his disciples, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

And the Lord is speaking now on resurrected ground and it's just on the very threshold when he will be received up into heaven, taken up from them, and will sit down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, far above all principality and might and power and dominion. And as he goes back to the Father, he sends forth the Holy Spirit and power by the Spirit comes upon the disciples carrying in Jerusalem. So he speaks of that here on the Mount of Olives.

You know, it's a tremendous thing to remember that the power of the Spirit is still ours until he returns. And testimony for God in this world is not by might and it's not by power, but it's by my Spirit, saith the Lord. And if you and I are walking in this Spirit, then there will be nothing that will interfere with the outworking of God's purpose for us and his plan for our lives.

And our lives will be fruitful for him as we commune with him and cooperate with the Spirit of God as he teaches us through his Word. Our lives will be marked by love and joy and peace. It's guaranteed and long-suffering and gentleness and meekness and goodness and faith and temperance.

It will be guaranteed to us. It comes as a package. And the Lord spoke of it on the Mount of Olives.

I want to sit down, but before I do, just notice with me quickly from Zechariah 14. Anticipating a future moment, a time when the Lord will return. What a tremendous day that will be.

He's coming to take up the reins of earthly government and in his sovereignty he will come, like Revelation 19 describes for us, upon the white horse this time. The heavens will be opened and he will come and his feet will stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives. He's coming to prevent the eradication of the remnant, the Jewish remnant.

That mountain will split in two. There'll be a valley from east to west and it's not a very high mountain, it's only 300 feet above the level of the Temple Mount today, but in that day it's going to split in two, north and south, and it will open up a valley east and west. And the topography of the land will evidently be altered and Mount Zion will be raised up to be the predominant feature there, at least in that region, and his feet will actually stand upon that Mount, the Mount of Olives.

The remnant will escape and the enemies will be put down, fighting one against another like they did in the days of Gideon when the Midianites fought one another and so on. A lot of detail given there in that chapter and it's tremendous to think about, but just this point that Jesus is coming again and he's coming again in his power and he's coming again to reign and planet earth will be his and he will establish his kingdom and the administration of that kingdom from the heavenly city and all who have been linked with him in this his time of rejection will have that reward in the coming day as we are linked with him in his glory and testimony for him now will meet its reward then and all that is done for him will not be lost even though it's insignificant and in the background and out of the way now. I think Paul had that in mind even as he as he wrote to the Corinthians and he said therefore my beloved brethren be ye steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord the crowning day is coming and soon the Lord victorious in his sovereignty and his power will be manifested to this world and we'll be eternally linked with him in his glory to see the King in all his beauty.

I'm looking forward to it I know you are too. Let us labor for the master then from the dawn till setting sun until we see his face just the Lord bless.